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SESSIONS LMA as a Tool for Developing Audio Description. Making the Arts Accessible to People Who are Blind by Esther Geiger, USA Paper Audio Description (AD) is a technique for making visual images verbal, and thus available to people who are blind or have low vision. AD is used in live theatre, broadcast media and museums. For television and film, an audio describer reviews the program and writes descriptions of visual elements and action, which are timed to be read between dialogue or other audio elements. The AD script is then recorded by a professional voice talent on an auxiliary sound track. In live theatre performances, audience members who are blind or have limited vision use headset receivers to listen to a live describer reading program notes and describing sets and costumes before the show, then narrating the action (during pauses between dialogue) throughout the performance. Laban Movement Analysis offers description writers and live describers a valuable tool for observation, selection and description of important movement elements in theatre and film. The presenter has used Laban Movement Analysis to assist in description development for Audio Description Associates (ADA), a company that focuses on live theatre and museums; and for the Described Media division of the National Captioning Institute (NCI), which works in broadcast media and DVDs. One groundbreaking project, in collaboration with ADA, produced a script used by describers at a performance of Axis Dance--a company that has pioneered “physically integrated dance”—presented by the Flynn Theatre in Burlington, Vermont. For most blind audience members who used the service, this was the first time they had attended a dance performance. Recently, the presenter has conducted training workshops with NCI’s description writers, introducing them to the LMA framework for looking at movement and finding its meaningful essence. This presentation will include: - A brief overview of Audio Description. - How the “motif principle”—pinpointing essence and pattern—can inform the analysis/description process. - Examples/comparative analyses of descriptions written by non-CMA-trained describers and descriptions developed by a CMA. - Question and Answer session. Esther Geiger holds an MA in Movement from Wesleyan University’s Liberal Studies program, and a certificate in Laban Movement Analysis (CMA) through the Laban/Bartenieff Institute for Movement Studies. Her applications of movement analysis have included playground design, yoga practice and instruction, and personnel administration, as well as audio description. Currently, Esther coordinates professional gatherings and enrichment activities for WACMA (Washington DC Area CMAs). She has served as an Assistant Faculty member in the LMA Certificate Program at the University of Maryland and as an Instructor for pre-requisite courses. She is also the full-time administrator and a faculty member at Unity Woods Yoga Center, the USA’s largest Iyengar studio.
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